This sunny spring in Colorado is really all the evidence you need to know brings warm weather brings green leaves and colorful blooms.

Writing in the May edition of the journal Nature, scientists think those researchers who rely on labs instead of old-fashioned sunshine are living in the dark, gravely underestimating the effect of warmth on spring’s botanical arrival.

By comparing lab results to historical observations on 1,634 plant species on four continents, scientists concluded that historical monitoring showed temperature sensitivity to be four times greater for leafing and more than eight times greater for flowering.

Forecast Colorado is your place for the latest breaking weather news for Denver and Colorado, featuring the latest forecasts, road conditions and closures — with an occasional detour into meterological science, trivia and oddities.